Vehicles worth K3mil recovered

A JOINT operation by police and the Tewai-Siassi district administration has resulted in the recovery of 12 district vehicles kept in the possession of individuals in Lae.
Tewai-Siassi MP Dr Kobby Bomareo said the recovered vehicles were among 17 that were purchased by the district in the last term of Parliament but were unaccounted for.
Bomareo said the vehicles were worth close to K3 million and were bought using district service improvement programme (DSIP) funds. “It has taken us eight days to recover the vehicles,” Bomareo said.
“We have so far recovered 12 vehicles.
“Five more vehicles are yet to be recovered.
“All of the vehicles were kept in the hands of private people.
“Three vehicles were taken off from a former public servant while two other vehicles were taken from a serving public servant all associated with the former administration,” Bomareo said.
“We have asked police to assist us in recovering these vehicles because we found it hard to recover them by ourselves.
“I have decided to take this action because I have on numerous occasions asked the former administrator to help me recover the vehicles but it did not work out.”
The vehicles recovered included trucks, troop carriers, utilities and luxury vehicles.
He said the vehicles were recovered at Nadzab, Busu Compound, Hunter, Bumayong, Speedway and Back Road.
Bomareo said the district was starved of vehicles which affected the work of public servants because all the vehicles were in Lae in the hands of unscrupulous people.
“I have a new district administrator and (district development authority) board in place and we are now slowly recouping our assets,” he said.
“We started off with the ship (mv Lady Zeming) and now the vehicles.” Bomareo said the office of the district and local level government affairs would also conduct an audit into how the district used its funds in the last five years.
“We will make sure that those who have been keeping district property for their own personal use will be made to answer for their actions,” Bomareo said.
Only four of the 12 recovered vehicles have their keys intact while the rest were towed into the provincial works compound by police.